“I assure you, Ysolde, they’re fascinating objects, and there are several companies who make pellet dissection kits available to children. Am I to take it that Brom found one on his own?”
“Yeah. It’s a big one, too. I bet it used to be a cat or something.”
“You are an unnatural child,” I told Brom, and took my own plate to the far side of the kitchen table, where I proceeded to ignore the discussion of just what gruesome things one might find in owl barf.
Pavel arrived soon after that, driving a large moving truck that I greeted with cries of happiness. It took a few hours to unload and put away our things, but by the time that had been done, and the day’s squad of cleaning women had worked their way through the remainder of the house that previously had been left uncleaned, I was beginning to feel more at home.
“Well, it’s certainly not anywhere I’d like to spend the rest of my life, but at least it’s habitable,” I said aloud to no one as I stood in the empty front hall, looking around for traces of cobwebs or dust that had been missed. The cleaning ladies knew their stuff, however, and if the house wasn’t attractive, at least it was no longer caked in dirt and grime.
“Was that a moving truck I saw leaving the road?”
I turned at the voice and smiled. Maura’s color was very high as she and Savian entered the house, while his hair was tousled, and his shirt buttoned up incorrectly.
“Yes, Pavel got here with our things. Including…” I pulled a small jeweler’s box from my pocket. “Ta da! The spare key to your handcuffs that your landlady allowed Pavel to retrieve.”
“Ergh,” Savian said, looking sideways at Maura. “My…uh…landlady. Yes. Just so.”
“I’m sure you two will be delighted to finally have them off,” I said, my expression innocent as I handed over the key. “I know how wearing it’s been to be constantly together, day and night, every single moment, with no privacy, just the two of you. Especially since we haven’t seen much of you these last few days while you’ve been out doing…What is it you’ve been out doing?”
Maura shot me a startled look. “Savian has been doing some research for a job he says you hired him for, but he won’t let me see the computer screen while he’s doing it, so I have no idea what is going on other than I’ve been forced to forgo all of my plans and spend every day doing what he wants.”
Savian grinned wickedly at her for a second, then cast a glance toward me, cleared his throat, and said, “In part, I’ve been trying to locate your ex-husband, but I lost his trail somewhere in Switzerland, and just haven’t had a lot of time to devote to that because you told me the other project was to take priority.”
“It is the more important of the two, yes,” I said, watching them, hesitating to tell Maura that we, too, were searching for the location of the sepulcher. I had no idea with what Thala was blackmailing her, but I would never let the light sword go, not while I had such a desperate need for such a valuable object.
“And then we…got a bit…distracted.” Maura fidgeted uncomfortably.
Savian seemed to realize just how obvious she was being, for he murmured something noncommittal before using the key to unlock three different sections of the handcuff.
It opened with a loud click, and a louder sigh of relief from Maura. She rubbed her wrist, and with an unreadable look at Savian, excused herself. “I’m going to take a shower by myself for a change.”
My eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
She blushed and stammered, “Not that Savian and I have taken a shower together.”
“That’s not quite the truth, princess,” Savian said to her with a wink. “Just yesterday you were taking a shower with me.”
“Not with you,” she said, a tad desperately, I thought. “It’s not like that at all, Ysolde. Savian was in the room with me, but not in the shower!”
“I know that full well,” I said, taking pity on her face, which was now beet red. “I brought in some towels while you were having your shower.” My gaze slid to Savian. I’d caught him peeking in through the shower curtain, but decided their budding romance—if they were destined for one—would benefit from a blind eye turned once in a while.
She shot Savian another look and ran up the stairs.
I turned my attention to him.
“There are no flies on you, are there?” he asked.
“No. I’m very fond of her mother, though, and would not take kindly to anyone toying with Maura.”
“Oh, but there’s so much to toy with.” He grinned unashamedly for a second.
“I take it you haven’t found the sepulcher yet?” I asked.
His grin faded. “Not yet, although I’m down to just four possible locations. I hope to narrow it down further tomorrow.”
“The sooner, the better. I don’t know if Maura’s told you, but Thala is on the hunt for it, as well, and we need to get there before her.”
He saluted. “Aye aye, mon capitaine.” His expression sobered as he rubbed his chin, saying thoughtfully, “My landlady, eh? I’ll have to see to her before—”
I waited for him to finish, but he simply thanked me for the key, and, whistling to himself, slowly mounted the stairs.
An hour later, I tracked down Pavel already at work in the kitchen, Holland at his side. “Can I see you for a minute?” I asked Pavel, gesturing toward a dark pantry that sat off the kitchen.
He followed, giving me a curious glance as I clutched a plastic shopping bag to my chest.
“I want to know three things, and I expect you to answer them, and not give me the usual dragon runaround.”
“I will do my best,” he answered, looking as if he wanted to smile.
“First of all, do you have any idea why Thala would want Baltic’s talisman? The one the First Dragon gave him?”
“The talisman?” He rubbed his ear and looked thoughtful. “She is not a full-blooded dragon. If her mother had been a mortal human, then yes, I would understand. But Antonia von Endres was an archimage, and thus her daughter’s blood was not pure by dragon standards.”
“Why would you understand if Antonia had been mortal?”
“You remember about wyverns, yes?”
“I know they have to have one human parent, if that’s what you mean. Except Baltic, of course, but that’s because his father was the First Dragon.”
Pavel nodded. “All of the First Dragon’s first generation children founded septs, including Baltic. They were able to do so because they bore the talisman.”
A little chill ran down my spine. “It has that much power?”
“Not power so much as it is an artifact recognized by the weyr. If the bearer is a dragon, he or she can form a sept and no one in the weyr can deny its existence. Have you never wondered why ouroboros dragons did not form their own septs rather than tribes?”
“They didn’t have a talisman,” I said slowly.
“Hence they can only form tribes,” he agreed.
“But…” I bit my lip in thought. “But Constantine formed his own sept, and he didn’t have a talisman.”
“Didn’t he?”
I narrowed my eyes at Pavel. “He isn’t one of Baltic’s brothers, if that’s what you’re implying. Baltic said all his siblings were dead, and besides, Constantine told me his father had died many centuries ago.”
“No, no, I did not mean that he formed the silver sept because he was the child of the First Dragon. I meant simply that he did possess a talisman in order to create the sept.”
A flash of insight struck me. “He stole Baltic’s talisman, too? Or did he take one from some other dragon? Are the talismans handed down to wyverns, like the dragon heart shards are?”
“I do not know—I am not privy to the intimate details of other septs.”
“Baltic must have gotten it back from Constantine,” I mused, wondering if the day would come that my memory would ever return to me. Then again, perhaps Baltic—not the most forthcoming of individuals when it concerned private things—had never told
me about the theft of his talisman. “Did I know about this before I was killed?”
He shrugged. “You would have to ask Baltic that.”
“Fat lot of good that’ll do me.” I made a face at the wall. “He hates answering questions about the past.”
“What were the other two things you wanted to speak to me about?” Pavel glanced toward the door behind him. “I was about to put the rib of beef into the oven, and I wished to put a rub on it first.”
“Oh, I wanted to ask you…Rib of beef? How are you cooking it?”
“Just roasting it with thyme, potatoes, and some root vegetables.”
“Thyme? What an excellent idea. Would you like me to make a salad?”
“If you wish to, although I’d planned on grilling some courgette, and tossing it with feta, mint, and pine nuts as the salad.”
I started salivating at the thought. “No, no, you go ahead with that. Um. What was it I wanted to ask…oh, Baltic said when we came here that he was having someone in England try to locate where Gareth and Ruth went when they left the castillo. Did you happen to find out if they’ve been tracked?”
“I did, and they haven’t.” He made a little gesture. “I’m sorry, Ysolde. I told Baltic yesterday that the tracker reported they disappeared after going to Geneva.”
“Damn. That matches what Savian said.” I let myself dwell with much satisfaction on what I wanted to do to Gareth once we did find him again.
“And the third thing? I really must baste the vegetables before they are put in with the beef.”
With an effort, I pulled my attention back from thoughts of a cattle prod being applied to Gareth. “Hmm? Oh, this.” I held out the bag. “I bought these in London the day Brom was taken, and I meant to give them to you to use with Holland, but things went to hell in a handbasket that night, and they got shoved into the wardrobe with my things.”
Pavel pulled out the toys I’d purchased for him, his eyes widening at the sight of the bed restraint system. “The cuffs alone would have been enough,” he said, then blinked as he pulled out the C-shaped item. “Christos.”
“I didn’t know whether you like that sort of thing or not, so I got a couple of different ones,” I said, pulling out a stimulator. “This one is ribbed. I assume that’s good, although I wouldn’t want…never mind. And this wand can be used by two people at the same time, which I thought was pretty handy. Now, the electric jobby is brand-new, and Dido, the lady at the sex store, says it’s a huge hit with gentlemen, although you have to be sure to attach both electrodes before turning it on. Oh, and she said because of the shape, there’s a special way to…er…use it. She said you need to lie on your side—”
“Thank you,” Pavel said quickly, snatching the toy from me and stuffing it into the bag along with the others. “You’ve been more than generous, but I believe I will be able to work out how to use everything.”
I beamed at him, pleased that he was so enthusiastic. “I hope you enjoy them. And Holland enjoys them, too. Do let me know how that bed restraint goes, and whether or not the electric thing works as well as Dido said it does.”
I swear he choked as he hurried out of the pantry, but I put it down to his being overwhelmed with the number of toys I’d brought. “Now, if I can just get Baltic to agree to play with the toys I bought for us, we’ll be set.”
Chapter Twelve
A few minutes later, when I was arranging a vase of rather aphidy wildflowers in a cracked vase, I heard noise from upstairs.
“Oh good, you’re still here,” Maura said as she walked briskly down the stairs, a small duffel bag in her hand. “I didn’t want to leave without saying good-bye, and thanking you for making my imprisonment as charming as it could be.”
“You weren’t imprisoned,” I said with a bit of exasperation.
“My kidnapping, then. Thank you for making it a pleasant kidnapping. Or as pleasant as it could be having been chained to that man.”
“I know it wasn’t pleasant, but Savian isn’t that—”
The front door was suddenly flung open, the breeze from the action whipping my hair around.
“I knew it!” The silhouette of the man in the doorway resolved itself into a familiar form as he entered the house. “I knew you were here in Riga!”
“Kostya? What are you doing here? And why are you banging my front door around like that? I hope you’re not treating my door at Dragonwood that way, because if you are, I’ll have a few things to say to you about it.”
“Dragonwood is not yours, so what I do with my own front door is—” He stopped, took a deep breath, and said in his most dramatic voice, “What are you doing in Latvia?”
“Will you move, you great big…You could help me, you know!”
Kostya jerked as if someone had shoved him, stepping aside to glare down at the woman who dragged a huge suitcase in after her. “You shoved yourself—uninvited, I’d like to point out—into my car. Since I no longer recognize you as my mate, I am not responsible for you, the immense amount of luggage you crammed onto the backseat, or the hotel bill you tried to force me to pay.”
“Hello, Cyrene,” I said, suddenly weary. “I take it by the suitcase that you’ve come to visit us? I’m afraid you’ll have to share a room with Maura now that Savian is on his own again, unless you wanted one of the attic rooms, but I didn’t have the cleaning ladies do anything with them, so they’re no doubt full of spiders and bats and really nasty things like that.”
“You can have my room, because I’m leaving. I’m in a world of trouble for having been away this long as it is,” Maura said, trying to scoot around the couple.
“Thank you, Ysolde,” Cyrene said, smiling broadly at me as she leaned into Kostya. He promptly moved away. “We’d love to stay with you for a bit!”
“Wait, Maura, just a second. I want to talk to you.”
Her shoulders slumped a little when she gave a longing look to the door. “If you’re going to apologize again, you needn’t do so. I know the kidnapping wasn’t your fault.”
Kostya gave me a considering look. “You kidnapped that woman?”
“No! Not really. Kind of. It was an unforeseen, and very regrettable accident, that’s all, and Maura, don’t you dare take another step toward the door.”
“Almost free,” she said in a dramatic voice, her eyes locked on the door. “Freedom, the sweetest of all balms to the immortal soul.”
“Oh, for the love of…no, Cyrene, Kostya cannot stay here. You may share Maura’s room if you like, but even though Baltic no longer wants to kill Kostya on sight, there’s no way he can stay in this house.”
“I don’t want to be in the same house as Baltic. I have a perfectly nice home in St. Petersburg.” Kostya shot a harried glance toward Cyrene. “Or I used to, before a certain watery tart tried repeatedly to break into it.”
Cyrene hung on to her smile for all she was worth. “Isn’t he cute?” she said, patting him on the arm. The expression in her eyes was less amused, however. “Kostie does enjoy his little jokes. But that is so kind of you to ask us to stay. We’d love to, naturally. I don’t think we’d be comfortable in a room with someone else, though, so if you could just give us a room with a nice big bed, we’ll be happy as two little clams.”
I ran my hand through my hair, feeling more than usually harried. “Just wait a few minutes, Cyrene, then we’ll talk about the situation. Maura—”
“No.” She stood at the front door, a firm, decisive expression warning that she had reached her limit. “No more excuses, no more good-byes, no more conversation. I’m in far more trouble than you can imagine, and I have to go call Emile in an attempt to keep the most horrible event you can imagine from happening. I don’t want to be rude, and I do appreciate the fact that you made my incarceration here as pleasant as possible, but the answer is still no.”
“But—”
“Good-bye, and good luck with whatever it is that Savian has undertaken on your behalf.”
The door
closed firmly behind her as she left. I frowned at it for a moment, trying to decide what would be best to do with regard to her. I wanted to help her, and yet at the same time, I needed to know the location of the sepulcher. Perhaps if she got that information from Dr. Kostich, she would tell me, as well as Thala?
“Hellfire,” I swore, deciding that would never happen. If Savian didn’t come through with a location in the next twenty-four hours, I’d just have to try to get the information from Dr. Kostich myself. Somehow.
“And damnation,” Kostya said, giving Cyrene an irritated frown.
“Look, I’m trying to be nice to you; I really am,” Cyrene said, frowning right back at him. “You could work with me!”
“I don’t want to do anything other than to wish you to the devil,” Kostya snapped before turning his back on her to face me. “Why are you here?”
“I live here,” I said, making a helpless gesture.
“In Riga?” His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “That insane mate of yours intends on doing something here, doesn’t he?”
I set his feet on fire. He did nothing other than tighten his lips, although the fire made Cyrene squawk and leap back. “Baltic is not insane, which you very well know.”
“Does he intend to rebuild Dauva?”
“Of course he’s going to rebuild. Did you ever doubt he would? You know how much he loved it.”
“I cannot allow that,” Kostya said loftily, his voice rife with impatience. “It is too close to St. Petersburg, where my home is located. I will not have Baltic on the black dragons’ back doorstep.”
“Will you cease bothering my mate!”
I folded my arms over my chest and waited for the explosion. Baltic strode into the house, his dragon fire simmering inside him, his attention focused on Kostya.
“You don’t deny you are building here deliberately to threaten my sept?” Kostya spun around to ask.
“Has he annoyed you, Ysolde?” Baltic asked, his eyes as hard and shiny as hematite when he looked at Kost-
ya, but warm and full of mysterious depths when they turned to me. “You will not let me kill him, as I ought, I know, but I will see to it that he does not bother you in such a manner again.”